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ARE YOU EXCITED FOR SOME QUALITY BLUE JAYS ACTION!?

The series might be almost two-thirds done, but that doesn't mean that it should go threadless. Braves took the first one as the bats went ice cold (nooooo, reeeeeally?), and the Jays are currently leading game the second 6-5 in the 8th. 'Twas 6-1 until Brian Tallet saw fit to make things a little more interesting by giving up four runs.

The bats come alive once again! Wells with a good game.

9-5 Jays.

Tallet almost gave me another heart attack there.

Oh god, I'm going to waste hours with the new Gameday 3-D. BJ Ryan's Pitch F/X cluster for pitch release has always shown that he has a slightly different release point for his slider and fastball (though it's hard to tell, because he throws across his body to such a degree that it's almost off the chart), but you really get a sense of it angling Gameday from the mound. It's a good couple inches closer on the mound side than his fastball, like to keep it in on righties.

Down side: my laptop might catch fire after about three minutes of toying with it.

What is this Gameday 3-D you speak of? What does it do?

Peteros wrote:What is this Gameday 3-D you speak of? What does it do?

MLB.com features a pitch-by-pitch tracker for each game called Gameday, which uses the Pitch F/X machines in every stadium to track the flight path, break and speed of every pitch. It's a treasure trove of information, and a couple sites (http://www.thehardballtimes.com and http://baseball.bornbybits.com , among others) have generated some great charts/articles using the data. They've recently made a 3-D version, so that you can rotate the view to get a better idea of the release point, depth and break of each pitch.

Here's the ongoing Yankees/Mets game in Gameday 3-D:
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2008_06_28_nyamlb_nynmlb_1&mode=gameday

And a couple screenshots, which really give you an idea of how good Johan Santana's change-up really is. It's the pitch with the blue tail:

From behind the plate, with the scroll-over data for the pitch:
http://img369.imageshack.us/my.php?imag ... na4mj1.jpg

View from the righty batters box (about waist-high)
http://img161.imageshack.us/my.php?imag ... na1dr6.jpg

From the mound...notice how similar the release point and early flight of the fastball and change-up are
http://img47.imageshack.us/my.php?image=santana2oh6.jpg

Side view: it's not until the ball is 10+ ft into its flight that the change-up starts to break down...at which point it dives.
http://img114.imageshack.us/my.php?imag ... na3nw7.jpg


(couldn't hotlink 'em for some reason)

I ask you guys....is there any need for 4 lefties in the bullpen? Honestly, let's get rid of Tallet for another bench bat. I'm sure there's tons of teams out there looking for a lefty out of the pen. Maybe get rid of Frasor and Stewart at the same time.

Remember Casey Janssen, well because of the torn labrum, i suspect he'll be bullpen fodder for the rest of his career. Jeremy Accardo is still there too. That BP looks insane with the likes of Ryan/Downs/Accardo/Janssen/Carlson/League/Camp....i won't lie...i'm frothing from the mouth like i have rabies at the thought of that BP.

Another wasted opportunity in the 2nd inning. 2 man on with nobody out, Eickstein hits into a double play. (Why not bunt the runners over??) The 95th time the Jays have hit into a double play. ouch.

aj burnett has pitched a great game so far..... let's hope it doesn't go to waste

man, the jays were 0/8 with RISP before Rios saves the day......

Gotta give credit to Reyes. He pitched a great game!

The good Burnett showed up today. Good to see. 11 strikeouts! nice!!

Now let's see if BJ can shut it down and get us the win.

JAYS WIN! JAYS WIN!

that was a good win.. good outing by BJ Ryan, considering he pitched yesterday.

I'm happy we took the series , even though I think we should have took 3 from the Braves.

AJ with two good starts in a row, could he possibly go on a run of good starts.